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Sex-specific age association with primary DNA transfer

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Abstract

Practicing forensic scientists who are called to provide expert witness testimony are often asked to explain both the presence and the absence of DNA on objects that have been handled by perpetrators with bare hands. Unwashed hands, depending on what they have come in contact with previously, may become the vehicle of both primary and secondary transfer of DNA. In this study, we investigated the propensity of primary and secondary transfer of DNA from unwashed bare hands of 128 individuals onto plastic tubes. Our experiments, carried out in triplicate, have shown that DNA was not detected on all the touched tubes, secondary transfer of DNA, through unwashed hands, was small, and in the majority of cases primary DNA transfer could be distinguished from secondary DNA transfer. A statistically significant association was demonstrated between percent DNA profile deposited on plastic tubes, through unwashed hands, and the age of male individuals.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank their laboratory colleagues for their invaluable support toward this study and all volunteers who participated in the experiments of the study for their time, cooperation, and patience. Funding for this study was provided by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Promotion Foundation (Project ΝΕΑ ΥΠΟΔΟΜΗ/ΝΕΚΥΠ/0308/12).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Forensic Genetics, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 6 Airport Avenue, 2370, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Panayiotis Manoli, Antonis Antoniou, Evy Bashiardes, Stavroulla Xenophontos, Vaso Stribley, Michalis Mylona & Marios A. Cariolou

  2. Department of Electron Microscopy and Molecular pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 6 Airport Avenue, 2370, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Christiana Demetriou

  3. Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 6 Airport Avenue, 2370, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Antonis Antoniou, Evy Bashiardes, Stavroulla Xenophontos, Marinos Photiades, Christiana Demetriou & Marios A. Cariolou

Authors
  1. Panayiotis Manoli
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  2. Antonis Antoniou
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  3. Evy Bashiardes
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  4. Stavroulla Xenophontos
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  7. Michalis Mylona
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  8. Christiana Demetriou
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  9. Marios A. Cariolou
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Correspondence to Marios A. Cariolou.

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Table S1

Treating age as a continuous variable using sex specific cut-offs to define “shedding status. (DOCX 15 kb)

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Manoli, P., Antoniou, A., Bashiardes, E. et al. Sex-specific age association with primary DNA transfer. Int J Legal Med 130, 103–112 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1291-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1291-2

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